Building leadership skills and equipping students for life after high school is what Miss. Nygren's FCCLA club is all about. FCCLA stands for Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America and is a national organization where students build real-world skills. Students had the opportunity to showcase these skills at the FCCLA Oregon State Leadership Conference in Portland on March 16th-18th.
Six Umatilla High School students attended the conference and competed in various events with other students from FCCLA chapters across the state. Each student chose an area of focus they were interested in and prepared an oral and physical presentation. Their physical presentations included putting together a portfolio, a trifold, or a slide show. They prepared these in class and practiced presenting with their club advisor Miss. Nygren to be ready for the State conference.
At the State conference, the students said they had a great time and enjoyed attending leadership workshops but were nervous once it came down to competing. Junior Abby Daniel said, "it was fun. We always had something to do, but when it came down to the actual competition part, it was like an adrenaline rush."
All their practice and hard work paid off as the students competed well and had a lot of success. Below is how each student placed:
Senior Dario Ascencio - Earned a gold medal score and placed 3rd in State.
Senior Marian Calderon - Earned a silver medal score and placed 1st in State.
Junior Abby Daniel - Earned a gold medal score and placed 3rd in State.
Junior Valeria Leon - Earned a silver medal score and placed 5th in State.
Junior Yasmin Martinez - Earned a silver medal score and placed 3rd in State.
Senior Isabel Vazquez-Murgia - Earned a gold medal score and placed 1st in State.
Marian Calderon and Isabel Vazquez were one of the top two students in their event, qualifying them to compete at Nationals in Denver, Colorado, this summer. Dario Ascencio, Abby Daniel, and Yasmine Leon are runner-ups and will qualify to compete at Denver if either competitor ahead of them cannot attend.
While only two students will for sure compete at Denver, all six students will attend the National Conference to go to workshops and help judge different divisions of competitors.
